Before Dawn

by Olivia Hutchinson

  Before Dawn

  Olivia Hutchinson

  Before the Dawn

  Copyright © 2019 Olivia Hutchinson

  Cover design by Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  About the Author

  Also by Olivia Hutchinson

  Author’s Note

  Ajax

  For Amy.

  Thanks for being a really great friend. Your thoughts and opinion mean everything.

  Love you to pieces.

  Prologue

  Natalie Everhart’s head was throbbing. She hadn’t even touched the Jack Daniels, but that bottle of Chardonnay had been pretty potent. Her friends were laughing around her, the sounds giving her another sharp influx of discomfort in her temples. She rubbed them with no relief.

  “An accent?” her friend Beth was asking. “Is that all it takes to get into your pants?”

  Despite the discomfort, Natalie couldn’t suppress her grin. Beth stared at Heidi, who sat on the floor painting her toenails and gushing about the sexiness of Gerard Butler. Of course, the man was sexy as sin. He was also an actor and, lucky for him, far away from all of their sex-deprived clutches.

  “Absolutely. A sexy accent is the only excuse I need to lose my panties and pop my legs open,” Heidi said as she rose to her feet and strode past Natalie to retrieve a bag of chips from the kitchen counter.

  She pulled unsuccessfully at the bag, unable to open the tortillas, much to Heidi’s chagrin and Natalie’s amusement. Natalie’s head may hurt, but even so, there was no place else she would rather be. The seven of them hadn’t been able to have a girls’ night in what seemed like forever. When she took the time to think about it, Natalie surmised it had probably been almost a year.

  Too long, in her opinion.

  Andrea shook her head and snagged the chips out of Heidi's grasp before opening them quickly. She plucked out a chip and flicked it at Heidi's head. "Skank."

  “Oh, come on. Just because you’re Saint Andrea the virgin doesn’t mean everyone else is,” Heidi accused.

  Andrea frowned. “I’m not a virgin.”

  “Yeah, okay.” Heidi rolled her eyes.

  Heidi could get carried away, not always aware that there was supposed to be a filter between her brain and her mouth. That filter appeared when it was convenient, but otherwise, it was nonexistent.

  "Jeez," Natalie barked, "leave the girl alone." She reached to the middle of the table to grab the already open bottle of wine. Peering into the bottle, she saw only about an inch of golden liquid remaining, and drank it down in one long gulp. The alcohol would do nothing for her headache, but she didn't care. She would drink a Gatorade and take two Ibuprofen before she crashed in Lila's guest room with the others.

  “She knows I’m only messing with her,” Heidi said after swallowing the chip she was munching on.

  Natalie shook her head. “You better hope she knows that or you’ll wake up in the morning with a frozen bra and a Sharpie mustache.” She got up from her chair and took the empty wine bottle behind the kitchen counter to rinse it out in the sink. She hoped Andrea would draw a mustache on her. She would take it upon herself to help.

  Andrea laughed, dropping her head onto her cousin Lila’s shoulder as Natalie grabbed an unopened bottle of Riesling and the corkscrew from the counter. She walked back to her seat and plopped into the chair where she sat sandwiched between Carey and Beth.

  “I’m so happy I’m more mature than the lot of you,” Carey was saying, holding out her empty wine glass for Natalie to fill as soon as she was done wrestling with the corkscrew. Natalie filled her glass and pressed the cork back in the bottle, clunking the tabletop when she set the bottle down with more force than intended.

  Beth snorted next to her. “Mature? You? Are you not the same woman who told the entire nursing staff that Dr. Sallis enjoyed getting enemas as part of his sexual play?”

  Carey stared at Beth, looking around Natalie to do so. "He stole my pen."

  “Wait a minute,” Beth said, shaking her head in disbelief. “You never even slept with him?”

  “He stole my pen.”

  Natalie worked as a physical therapist assistant at the same hospital where Carey and Lila worked as nurses. Beth worked as a phlebotomist in the lab, but the hospital itself was so small that everyone knew everyone else. There was nothing that one employee didn’t know about another, no matter how private. She had heard the rumor about Dr. Sallis, one of the emergency room doctors, but she hadn’t known where it originated.

  She probably should have been surprised that it was Carey, but she wasn’t. Carey marched to the beat of her own drum.

  “You embarrassed that man because he stole a pen?” Lila asked. “Was it made of solid gold?”

  “No, it was the one I borrowed from the bank.”

  Lila arched a delicate blonde brow. “It was a pen you had stolen yourself?”

  Carey folded her arms over her chest in defiance. “I didn’t steal it, I borrowed it.”

  “You had no intention of giving it back!”

  “I was going to give it back when it ran out of ink,” Carey said defensively. “Besides, that wasn’t the only pen he ever stole from me. Every single day he steals my pens. He had it coming.”

  Beth snagged the half-empty bottle of Jack from where it sat next to the bottle of wine. "I work in the lab, and I heard that rumor. You don't think that was just a bit—oh, I don't know—uncalled for?"

  Carey folded her arms across her chest. "I've worked with that man for over two years, and in all that time he's never once said hello to me. And every single day he's there, he steals my pen. He doesn't steal Lila's pens or anyone else's. Just mine. Do you know how many pens that is?"

  “Um, no,” Beth said.

  “Three hundred and forty-six!”

  Natalie’s jaw dropped in surprise at the number. First, Carey had kept track. Second, that was a lot of pens.

  Andrea asked the question everyone was thinking. “You counted?”

  “What?” Carey asked, taking a gulp of wine. “Is that weird?”

  “Yes. Yes, that’s weird,” Maggie interjected from where she sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. She'd been quiet most of the night, but even she couldn't hide her shock. “That’s practically the definition of weird.”

  “Then I guess I’m weird.”

  Heidi’s mouth was still full when she chimed in. “We’re all weird.”

  Natalie couldn’t help herself. She dropped her pounding head to the table and whined, “And that is why we’ll forever be single.”

  Natalie had reached a point in her life where she could live comfortably. Working two part-time jobs, she made her own schedule and earned a decent income. She had good friends and a close relationship with her family, especially her sister. But all the wonderful things she had didn’t stop her from wanting more out of life. Having a husband and children had always been one of her life goals, but with each passing year, it seemed to be slipping further and
further from her reach.

  Most of the men she went out on first dates with didn’t make it to a second. Natalie was aware of her high standards, but she had to have them when searching for suitable husband material. Who wanted to create children with someone who would abandon them as soon as times got rough? She didn’t want to spend the remainder of her years with someone she wasn’t compatible with her either.

  Perhaps she needed to lower the bar slightly, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she just kept searching for Mr. Right, or at least for a man she could have a good conversation with, who was good with children, who had a good job and was financially responsible, and who she was physically attracted to.

  Yeah, she may never meet that man unless she crafted him from a doll and a computer program, like they did in Weird Science.

  “It is what it is,” Lila said, echoing Natalie’s feelings and sounding just as hopeless.

  “We don’t have to stay single, you know,” Carey said, cutting into Natalie’s demoralizing thoughts that had only been worsened by the effects of the alcohol. “We could meet some men. Some good ones, too.”

  “Right,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “I’m serious.”

  “And just how do you suggest we do that?” Maggie asked when no one else did.

  “We can do a spell.”

  Lila groaned and dropped her head to the table. “Not the witchy stuff again. Please, Carey.”

  Natalie had known Carey since college, and in all that time Carey always said she was a witch. It didn't surprise Natalie now that Carey suggested spell work. That was just Carey. It annoyed some of their friends, most likely due to Carey's constant focus on all things New Age, but Natalie found she didn't care one way or another. If Carey wanted to do a spell, then they could do a spell.

  “Why not? It’s not going to hurt anything,” Carey insisted.

  Beth laughed cynically. Out of everyone gathered at Lila’s, Beth had known Carey the longest and was perhaps the most familiar with her shenanigans. “Famous last words.”

  “I’m game,” Andrea said, the one positive voice in the room.

  Carey shot to the edge of her seat. “Ha!” she exclaimed, reaching next to her to thrust her finger into Andrea’s chest. “Thank you, Andrea. Who else?”

  “I’m in, I guess,” Lila said a second later. No shock there. Lila did just about anything Andrea wanted, especially since Andrea never seemed to want a lot.

  Beth folded her arms across her chest. “Fine.”

  "Yes!" Carey clapped her hands together when both Heidi and Maggie agreed to participate as well.

  Natalie was waiting for Carey to tell them the next step when she realized everyone was staring at her. "Oh, I thought it was a given. Of course, I'm in. At least this is easier than speed dating. And it doesn't require waxing!" Speaking of which, she couldn’t forget about her appointment tomorrow afternoon.

  Carey bounced in her seat, her long dark hair flying and slapping Natalie’s arm. The requirements list came next, rattled off as Carey visibly tried to calm herself. She excused herself to the bathroom a few minutes later, needing to mentally prepare, whatever that meant.

  Natalie went in search of tealights or candles in Lila's kitchen. She rummaged through the drawers. Heidi stood across from her, leaning against the countertop. She plopped the opened bag of tealights in front of her.

  "What are you doing next weekend?"

  Stewart, or Dr. Hubble as she referred to him at work, had invited her for an afternoon of bowling the following Saturday. He had a newly single friend he wanted to bring along and Natalie was supposed to find him a date if possible. He was insistent their first date be a double for some reason, and she didn’t mind the thought of bringing a friend with her. One well-timed bathroom trip and they could both bounce easily enough if the date wasn’t going well.

  Heidi began removing the candles from the bag. “I’m going to New Freedom with Maggie.”

  Natalie took a second to process what Heidi had just told her. “New Freedom?” she asked, wanting to make sure she heard correctly. “Isn’t that like in the middle of the woods?”

  "Mm-hmm. We're staying at Maggie's dad's cabin."

  She didn’t want to laugh aloud, but Natalie couldn’t picture Heidi roughing it out in the woods. The woman hadn’t been away from some sort of technological device since they were invented. She freaked out if she couldn’t check her phone at least every few hours. “I have a hard time picturing you in the woods,” she said carefully, not wanting to offend.

  Natalie scrounged around the drawer until she found a lighter. She pulled it out and began lighting the candles that Heidi was setting out along the edge of the counter.

  “You’re not the only one,” Heidi confessed with a frown. Perhaps Heidi did realize what a culture shock it was going to be in New Freedom.

  From what Natalie heard from Maggie, New Freedom was about as far out in the sticks as you could get. Natalie herself had been raised in the Appalachian Mountains until she moved to Maine for college and was no stranger to life in the boonies. However, she had zero inclination to get lost in the woods without electricity or running water. Been there, done that.

  She would have to tell Stewart she didn't have anyone she could bring. Beth would refuse, most likely because she was working, and Stewart already asked she not bring Lila or Carey as they knew him and didn't like him. The fact that they were not big fans of his had already knocked him down a peg in her book, but she was willing to at least give him one date. Maggie was out of the question as she would be in New Freedom with Heidi, which left Andrea.

  Glancing at where the redhead was digging through the kitchen cabinets, talking quietly with Beth, she decided against it. There was nothing wrong with Andrea, she may like Stewart's friend, but since Lila already disapproved of Stewart and would most likely disapprove of his friend as well, she knew Andrea wouldn't go for it. The two were closer than sisters, having been brought up in the same house; and if Lila didn't like someone, you could bet Andrea wouldn’t either.

  She would just have to tell Stewart she didn’t know anyone and it would just be the two of them. His newly single friend could go patrol the bars like most other single men.

  Natalie couldn't help but notice the sinking feeling she felt in the pit of her stomach. What did it say about Stewart that she was already shirking away from going out with him? Or dreading that she wouldn't have an easy out if she were having a bad time? With a huff, Natalie pushed it from her mind. One date with him wasn't going to kill her. Besides, maybe she'd end up liking him. Maybe.

  A few minutes later, when everything was set up, the six women stood around the table, waiting for the seventh to find her way out of the bathroom.

  The room was dark, illuminated only by the glow of the candles sitting on the counter behind Natalie and the blaze in the fireplace. The lights and the music, had been turned off and silence almost pulsed through the room as the women stared at each other, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next. Without their fearless magical leader, it was impossible to guess.

  “Did she fall in?” Andrea asked, looking to Lila who stood at her side.

  Lila shrugged before yelling, “Any time now Carey! Before we fall asleep out here.”

  There was no immediate response from Carey, but after a minute the bathroom door opened, and she stepped out into the semi-darkness. Natalie turned to watch her as she strode across the room to stand next to her. She looked at each of them in turn, her brown eyes carrying a knowing glare that gave Natalie chills.

  "Finally," Beth grumbled, her hands on her hips.

  “Friends, it is time to assemble,” Carey said, ignoring Beth. Her voice was soft and airy as she looked down at the salt and knife where they sat on the table in front of her.

  Heidi smirked, after which Lila sent her a swift elbow in her side, shaking her head. “Don’t piss off the witch.”

  Carey’s dark eyes narrowed.
“I need everyone’s equal participation and silence for this to work.”

  When no one said anything else, she lifted the container of sea salt from the table and began to walk around them, pouring the salt on the floor. Natalie thanked the heavens they weren’t at her own home right now. She would be calling an end to this as soon as it began if Carey started pouring salt on her floor. She noticed Lila cringing, but so far she hadn’t said anything.

  Stopping at the point where she began, Carey put the salt back on the table. Lifting her arms into the air, she called forth air, fire, earth, and water to join them. Natalie’s mind began to drift to what it meant to ‘call forth the elements’ as Carey had stated. It was peculiar, but if water was going to get her a man she could tolerate, so be it.

  When Carey began uttering words that weren't English, the rest of the women repeated them. Natalie tried to form her mouth around the strange phrases just like everyone else but stumbled over most of the words, tongue-tied.

  Carey’s voice was loud and clear as she spoke when she finally switched back to English. Her voice filled the large room. “We call forth our soul mates. Men of honor and integrity, both loyal and kind—”

  “With cocks of steel,” Heidi interrupted. Elbows flew, whacking her in the side. There were suppressed giggles, but Natalie just shook her head at their absurdity, eyes heavenward.

  Carey cleared her throat. “Loyal and kind,” she re-emphasized. “We seek to bind with these men and create lasting relationships full of love and compassion.”

  Picking up the sharp paring knife from the table, she held it out and made a small cut in the middle of her right palm and then the left. Blood welled on her skin as she tried to pass the knife to Maggie, who was staring at her as if she had finally gone over the edge.